Ho Chi Minh City Warning or Danger Tips by travelmad478

Saigon's streets are spectacularly chaotic. Cars, animals, motorbikes, bicycles, cyclos, and pedestrians pack the pavement, with no apparent attention paid to such minutiae as traffic lights, stop signs, the idea of keeping to one designated side of the road, or terrified foreign tourists trying to cross the street. A never-ending festival of horns, bells, and shouts enhances the effect.

Crossing the road generally takes nerves of steel. If you're cautious like me, you can stand on the edge of the sidewalk for ten minutes waiting for a break in the traffic. If you're braver than I am, you just walk out like the Vietnamese do and simply assume that all those vehicles will manage to avoid you. As my friend Kathy and her cyclo driver found, this does not always work out well. Within 15 minutes of starting out on our first ride through Saigon, Kathy's driver crashed into a motorbike. No major damage done, but it was a little nerve-racking.

Leave a Comment